Integrating Neuroscience with Developmental and Regenerative Biology (INDARB)

We propose to create an Integrating Neuroscience with Developmental and Regenerative Biology (INDARB) Training Program to prepare exceptional graduate predoctoral students in their third and fourth years of graduate school for productive careers in basic neuroscience research and related fields. Our proposed program recognizes that innovation in neuroscience research will require a cross-disciplinary training approach. Therefore, we will select outstanding candidates to be co-mentored by a primary and a secondary mentor selected from 31 different laboratories. Each of our INDARB trainees will employ cutting edge molecular biotechnologies (such as single cell and multi-omics approaches) or use diverse experimental systems, from human brain organoids to invertebrate and mammalian systems, and apply these tools or approaches to a problem in molecular, cellular, circuits, systems, computational, or cognitive neuroscience. Therefore, INDARB trainees will be recruited from two PhD programs: the Neuroscience PhD program and the Developmental and Regenerative Sciences PhD program. There is a strong institutional commitment and support for both PhD programs, as students are fully supported in year one. In the first and second years, students take their core courses, conduct lab rotations, join a lab, complete the qualifying exam, and advance to candidacy. Students to be supported by this advanced-stage T32 training grant are selected at the end of the second summer, to be supported during their third and fourth years. INDARB trainees will then engage in program-specific activities emphasizing cross-disciplinary training and career development, such as a 3-month external traineeship, statistical and quantitative literacy training, leadership training, and grant writing training towards submission of an F31 application. The University of Texas at San Antonio has a history of recruiting and training Ph.D. students from a wide range of academic backgrounds, and we strive to continue expanding the breadth of experiences among our trainees. By coupling comprehensive, research-intensive training and interactive educational/career development activities delivered from diverse perspectives, this T32 program is uniquely positioned to fill a need for rigorously trained independent scientists capable of making contributions in academia, teaching, industry, government, and public service.